Fair Change Community Services

at 145 Queen St E Toronto, Toronto Canada

1. Organization
2. Legal & Law Service

We are a group of law students and lawyers who help street-involved persons fight their tickets, and reduce debt from prior convictions, for free.

Description

Fair Change is more than a legal clinic. Our mandate encompasses individuals currently living with the aid of public financial assistance, who are homeless or who have struggled with homelessness in the past, and who nearly always suffer from severe mental health or addiction-related issues. Our clients subsist at the very outermost margins of Canadian society, often coming to us with thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid – and unpayable – provincial regulatory offence tickets. The repeat penalty for some offences – e.g. panhandling – runs as high as 6 months in jail. When jail over 30 days is imposed, social assistance programs stop paying rent for the incarcerated person. This often leads to eviction for the lucky few who’ve managed to thus far avoid or escape vagrancy. Moreover, outstanding fines can lead to the revocation and disallowance of a driver’s license, making it harder to obtain and retain employment. Unpaid fines can also dramatically impact one’s credit rating, making it even more painfully onerous to obtain housing. Recognizing these vulnerabilities, Fair Change agents work with clients and the legal system to achieve fair, just, and often creative resolutions. We do more than advocate and litigate: we befriend, counsel, shepherd, and console the most down-and-out, often at their most down-and-out. "Issuing tickets to homeless people is a counterproductive way of dealing with a poverty issue People who are homeless do not choose to be homeless. The research evidence indicates that a lack of affordable housing, combined with the inadequacy of necessary supports for those dealing with health, mental health, disability, violence and addictions issues means that many people become homeless. Moreover, many are forced to inhabit public spaces to meet basic needs such as sleep and income generation. The way to deal with these social and economic issues is to ensure that people have access to safe and affordable housing, as well as necessary supports to maintain their housing. Using law enforcement to deal with poverty is bad policy and practice." -Report from the Coalition for the Repeal of Ontario’s Safe Streets Act (CROSSA) in partnership with Mainstreet Technologies

Company Rating

164 FB users likes Fair Change Community Services, set it to 20 position in Likes Rating for Toronto, Ontario in Legal & Law Service category

Summary

Fair Change Community Services is Toronto based place and this enity listed in Organization category. Located at 145 Queen St E Toronto ON